Stripe Tailed Pygmy Monitor - Varanus caudolineatus
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STRIPED - TAILED MONITOR
Varanus Caudolineatus
This monitor is one of the smallest in Australia, reaching an average total length of 32 cm. It is a grey colour with a reddish - brown tinge on its back , has numerous dark spots over its back and base of the tail and there are four distinct longitudinal lines on the remaining two thirds of its tail.
It occurs in the arid mid-western interior around hard and stony soils with Mulga woodlands or shrublands.
It is arboreal, sheltering in hollow trees, stumps and trunk splits, under bark, exfoliations and even in termite mounds.It feeds on other lizards, or their tails if they are too difficult to subdue, cockroaches, spiders, caterpillars, centipedes and grasshoppers. Their clutch of offspring is laid in early summer, consisting of up to five eggs. This monitor is poorly represented in collections throughout Australia.
This is a shame really because this monitor does really well in captivity and a good friend of mine, Drew Smith, a monitor specialist rates this monitor as his absolute favourite. Here in the central West Coast Pilbara area, Varanus Caudolineatus looks not unsimilar to Varanus Gilleni. It has been suggested that this population may be natural intergrades of the two species.
I believe, however that this population is indeed just another area morph of Varanus Caudolineatus. We will hopefully in the near future get to examine this population in question to determine their true identity.
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